30 food truck designs to serve up summer

The idea of serving food out of a truck with a mobile kitchen is not new. It dates back as far as the nighttime “lunch wagons” that catered to New York City nightshift workers at the turn of the 20th century, and even farther — some accounts cite the chuckwagon, a mobile canteen for Texas cattle ranchers after the American Civil War, as an early progenitor of the street food vendors we know and love today.

The food truck’s true renaissance, however, arrived in the late 2000s. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, enterprising chefs like Roy Choi (of Kogi BBQ fame) saw the truck as a low-overhead opportunity to dish out the cheap cuisine that had become so in-demand. Now, the food truck is a cultural staple of cities across the globe. The food they serve is still artisanal and often hybrid-traditional, like Choi’s Korean tacos. Although these days, it isn’t necessarily that cheap.

From a design perspective, the food truck trend has been a lot of fun. When you’re competing against an armada of other trucks, you want yours to stand out. That means having a flashy and well-designed logo, menu and, of course, truck wrap. Food trucks are a year-round phenomenon, but summer is the season of their most magnificent bloom. In honor of that, here are 30 food truck designs to pique your appetite – many designed right here on 99designs.